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Thread: circle sawn look

  1. #1

    circle sawn look

    Is there a way to recreate old circle sawn look. I am building a dining room table table from old 2x oak boards. They have the beautiful circular swirls from the old sawmills. My problem is that some of the boards need to be leveled out on a a planer which would remove the swirl marks. Any way to recreate those marks once I have the boards leveled and squared up?

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    I saw a youtube video which I cannot find now, but it looked to work.
    The characteristic thing about those circle sawn marks is that the saw blade has a big diameter, so you can't just imitate it with the 10" saw blade which is so common in garage shops. You need a large diameter cutter. This Youtube guy came up with one: a rotary lawnmower! Remember, he's only trying to score the surface of the board, not trying to actually saw wood with the lawnmower. He mounted the mower to the middle of a table, and bolted hold-down infeed and outfeed rollers to the table. You don't want the board jumping up to really get into the blade. He bent the ends of the blade down at the tips, so only the tips touched the wood. His example boards looked pretty good!

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Interesting suggestion.....and nothing could possibly go wrong using a lawnmower to decorate boards.

    I would use a router with a circle jig to make the right sized marks. You could try different bits to score the wood.

  4. #4
    That guy using the lawnmower deserves an award for creativity! Send me his name and I'll nominate him for a Darwin.
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  5. #5
    I recently had to make floor boards for an old tractor and they wanted it to look original. I was able to source old boards cut with a circle sawmill. I did all my leveling and height adjustments on the bottom side. The top side was just wire brushed by hand to clean them up.

    After everything was bolted down, I wiped it down with a mix of vinegar and steel wool. It darkened up a few worm holes and anywhere the wood chipped. It was bolted down but maybe you could screw up from the bottom through some cleats to hold them flat?

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    There are a few old saw mills around that use the circular blades. Do a google search for vintage saw mills.

    Here is one in PA
    https://www.spachtsawmill.com/
    Last edited by Lee Schierer; 01-03-2020 at 10:47 AM.
    Lee Schierer
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Frank View Post
    Interesting suggestion.....and nothing could possibly go wrong using a lawnmower to decorate boards.

    I would use a router with a circle jig to make the right sized marks. You could try different bits to score the wood.

    For the router, make a "U" shaped channel for boards to pass through. At one end fasten a bridge to open side of the "U". Then fasten router on trammel to bridge. Typically blades were 48", so use at least a 24" trammel. Move the pivot to different locations across the bridge to make lumber look authenic. Slide board thru, stopping often to make a pass with router.

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    I saw at YouTube video where they slightly bent a tooth on the saw blade. It looked like it worked pretty good.
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